Okay, this is actually related to my algebra/pacing thread from earlier this week, but is really a discrete issue/question by itself as well.
What is the appropriate or normal or common or ideal percentage that you would want a student to score on a unit pretest for math in general and algebra in particular?
I realized that part of the pacing issue (speeding through online algebra curriculum) that DS is having may be due to the fact that he already scores mid 80's to mid 90's on the chapter pretests. DS' teacher mentioned to him that another student scored below 50% on a pretest. Is that the normal and/or ideal?
However, regardless of the pretest percentage, it is clear to me that DS needs to take the Algebra course and that he has things to learn in the course. He has never taken Algebra and I certainly would not want him to skip something so foundatinal so this is not an issue of accelerating him further.
Part of it is that I am a bit surprised, then I realized I have no idea what is the normal/expected percentage for math in general and Algebra in particular since the only pretesting done was always in spelling. Both DS and DD always got 17 to 20 correct out of 20 spelling words from K to 4th grade, but many of their classmates routinely got many of the spelling words correct as well. That was no big deal since the spelling homework worked on other skills (like phonics, roots, etc.) and that just meant they didn't have to bother studying. Thank God that spelling is no more starting 5th grade this year.
As I was thinking this through, I realized that I would probably consider K-6 math a little differently than Algebra as well. Pre-algebra is somewhere in between but I would probably group it closer to Algebra. DS was able to get his first acceleration from 2nd grade math to 4th grade math partly because he scored highly on the year-end tests for 2nd-5th grade without being taught any curiculum beyond 2nd grade. I think this was possible because elementary math involves a lot of spiraling, is very common sense based, and could be absorbed in the process of daily living (grocery store, baking, etc.). Thus, I was very comfortable accelerating him the first time, especially since the district did an aptitude test as well. Actually, I was comfortable accelerating him the second time as well from 5th grade math to Pre-algebra (skipping 6th grade math).
As I mentioned above, there is no question of accelerating DS, but perhaps the high speed pace makes sense in view of the high pretest percentages? What is the ideal or expected percentage on chapter pretests?
